Screening event & press conference of NHK morning drama "Warotenka"

The screening event and press conference of new NHK morning drama "Warotenka" was held on 6 September at the TV station's HQ in Tokyo which was attended by cast members Aoi Wakana, Matsuzaka Toori and child actor Arai Miyu. The drama will begin its run from 2 October at 8am from Mondays to Saturdays.

The drama is set during the late Meiji era to post-World War II period at Osaka featuring the lead character Fujioka Ten who is modelled on Yoshimoto Sei, the founder of Yoshimoto Kogyo and a female show promoter. Fujioka was born into a family managing a drug wholesale business in Kyoto and meets Kitamura Fujiyoshi (Matsuzaka)who is the son of a family in the rice dealing business at Osaka. When they fall in love, Fujioka goes against her parents' wishes to marry Kitamura who is a big lover of comedy. Subsequently, after her husband's family goes bust, she unwittingly becomes the owner of a vaudeville theater with her husband. This then leads to her becoming the first person in Japan to make comedy into a business and transforming Osaka into a capital of comedy.

As the story will begin with the childhood days of Ten, Arai will appear in the first week's 6 episodes while Aoi will only appear from the end of the 6th episode. Aoi praised her young co-star for being very cute and has a charming smile and hopes that viewers will find her and Arai convincing as the adult and child versions of the same character. Matsuzaka remarked that amid the laughter in the story, there is a lot of warmth and gentleness so he hopes that the viewers will support the drama and find it interesting and energising when they watch it in the morning.

Although filming begun three months ago, Aoi said that she feels her inadequacy every day and hopes to be able to catch up in the remaining 10 months with the help of everyone around her. Especially since the schedule is rather tight, she was thankful that the story's comedic elements have helped to make the filming process even more enjoyable. However, she "complained" that Matsuzaka always makes funny faces at her or plays tricks whenever the camera doesn't show his face so she has learnt to keep a straight face through his antics which in turn made Matsuzaka burst out laughing. In response, Matsuzaka said that he just wants to make the atmosphere lively by making people laugh.

Sources: Eiga.com / Oricon